


always thank you

by bvssbot



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 16:12:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13344795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bvssbot/pseuds/bvssbot
Summary: the thing he notices the most is that they both love to… take care of each other. of course, any couple takes care of each other, but seongwoo finds it extraordinary that daniel, the person among all of their joined friends and pals that's being babied the most, takes care of seongwoo so thoroughly, sometimes even without realizing.





	always thank you

**Author's Note:**

> hiatus....... yea rite
> 
> partially inspired by [this](https://twitter.com/ongnielsbub/status/950326966070099968) tweet
> 
> title from nu'est's thank you

after having dated daniel for almost two years, seongwoo had been accustomed to most of daniel's habits, as well as let daniel know his own — mostly unintentionally, naturally as they spent hours on countless dates when they found (made) time for each other; days staying at one another's apartments; months learning how to be lovers after they got the whole friends thing down (that was probably the easiest, because they didn't have to even _try_ ). and seongwoo had spent a lot of time thinking about their relationship, not because he had doubts or was unhappy — on the contrary, being with daniel is one of those few things that still never fail to bring sincere joy into his otherwise boring life, — but because he just couldn't help it. still can't help it.

the thing he notices the most is that they both love to… take care of each other. of course, any couple takes care of each other, but seongwoo finds it extraordinary that daniel, the person among all of their joined friends and pals that's being babied the most, takes care of seongwoo so thoroughly, sometimes even without realizing.

 

 

 

it’s half past four when the next train arrives to the station and daniel and seongwoo manage to seat themselves at the end of an almost empty carriage. there’s weirdly not a lot of people at this time of day, even though it's supposed to be the beginning of rush hour, but seongwoo still feels an annoying itch to drown out the loud sounds of train once it leaves the station.

 

daniel isn’t as nearly talkative today as he is usually — there’s no particular reason to that, seongwoo knows that sometimes daniel just zones out on himself, especially when it's only the two of them. and seongwoo respects that, cherishes the fact that daniel feels comfortable enough about their relationship to not try hard twenty four-seven just for the sake of being entertaining to seongwoo. it hasn't always been like that, but they're here now and seongwoo doesn't wish to change a thing.

so it’s okay, but with daniel mutely scrolling on his phone, there’s nothing seongwoo can entertain himself with, really (especially not after he checks _all_ of his social media accounts and doesn’t find any new messages to reply to — which is truly tragic). he tries studying faces of the few people riding the train with them but no one piques his interest for too long, so, after some time spent staring off into the window, seongwoo is entitled to believe there is nothing better he can do than listen to music.

admittedly, he isn’t _crazy_ about music. he likes it, yes, and has his own preferences and even favorite artists, but he's not one to have a habit of listening to it everywhere he goes and at every time of the day like woojin, or jaehwan, or daniel do — even now daniel's earphones are hanging off on the neckline of his sweatshirt, even though when seongwoo leans in he can’t hear anything playing. so, seongwoo isn’t like that, no, but even he always carries a pair of headphones in his bag for instances like this one, knowing damn well how much of a lifesaver they can sometimes be.

he reaches for his bag and ransacks the contents of it for a few seconds before his fingers touch something that definitely could be his headphones. he gets it out but — no luck, it's one of his spare chargers. daniel gives him a quizzical glance out of the corner of his eye when seongwoo sighs audibly, but seongwoo doesn't explain, too busy searching.

when he finally does find his headphones and get them out of his messy bag, the relief he felt at finding them dampers drastically as he sees just how tangled they are, to no one's surprise since he hasn't used them for at least a week now. seongwoo twists them in his hands, tugging on the loose ends experimentally, but no matter how he tries, he ends up knotting them even more.

it's then when daniel's hands suddenly appear and gently take the headphones away from him — seongwoo watches in confusion as daniel easily untangles them, fingers moving as if he knows precisely what to do. maybe he really does, because a few seconds later daniel hands him his headphones back, untangled and ready to use.

"thanks…" seongwoo mumbles, dazed a bit, and accepts them, plugging the cord into his phone right away. he glances up to daniel's face, who's staring out of the window now, and nudges him with an elbow to the ribs.

daniel looks at him in surprise and then glances at one of the earbuds seongwoo is holding out. the way he smiles at seongwoo as he puts the earbud in makes seongwoo's lips tingle — he really wants to kiss daniel, even though they're in public.

 

 

 

seongwoo squeezes out a dollop of shampoo onto his wet palm, cursing under his breath when it leaks through the spaces between his fingers right into the bathtub beneath. he carelessly chucks the now empty bottle somewhere on the floor behind him and twists his upper body to face daniel again. he has his eyes trained on the phone screen he's holding with his dry hand, scrolling through an article he wanted to show seongwoo earlier — something about hiking trails around south korea.

"did you find it?" seongwoo asks, brushing daniel's wet hair off his forehead with the clean hand and then carefully spreading the shampoo from daniel's hairline to the back of his head, the scent of mint in the air strong but pleasant.

daniel makes a sound and stills for a second when seongwoo starts massaging the shampoo in, but comes to his senses fast, turning his phone to let seongwoo see the screen. "yeah, i think t'was this one?"

seongwoo hums, glancing down at the screen. daniel scrolls down for him, seeing how both of seongwoo's hands are occupied.

"songnisan looks pretty?"

"i know right!" the water splashes soundly as daniel quickly turns to sit with his front facing seongwoo, leaning in so that seongwoo can reach daniel's head from where he sits on the carpet in front of the bathtub. his face lights up with childlike excitement, even though his eyes flutter close from time to time as seongwoo washes his hair. "we could go there next week. it says that the trail is easy for newbies, i think it'd be a great way to start?"

seongwoo gently tilts daniel to the side to reach his nape, brushing his fingers through the short strands there and pushing the foam from the top of the head down.

"isn't it super snowy in winter…" he wonders quietly, pressing his hands flat on daniel's hair and sliding them down to collect the excess foam. he's not really sure what he's doing — by this point daniel's hair must be clean already, but. _but_ , seongwoo finds it cute how daniel has finally closed his eyes and is leaning into the touch, and how his wide shoulders sag the more relaxed he gets, and how the hot water made his cheeks just a bit rosy. daniel has dropped the arm he's still clenching his phone in, draping it over the bathtub edge, but seongwoo doesn't mind that he's unable continue reading the article anymore.

he thinks he can spend an eternity like that, watching daniel melt as seongwoo washes his hair in the quietness of daniel's bathroom, the only noise between them two the splashing of water from when daniel fidgets, unable to sit still for a few minutes.

"good?" seongwoo snorts, shifting to sit more comfortably — his legs are falling asleep already.

daniel doesn't reply right away, but when he does it's nothing but a long satisfied sigh. "very…"

 

as much as seongwoo would like to continue, his hands are getting pruney, so he brushes daniel's hair back for the last time and lets go of him. he's right about to dip his hands into the water when daniel grabs his wrists with his fingers.

"hold on," daniel instructs, and starts to carefully pull up the long sleeves of seongwoo's thin sweater that has ridden down. when he's done, he smiles up at seongwoo, satisfied with himself. "here, so you'on get it wet."

seongwoo bites on his bottom lip to keep his cheeks from breaking by a smile-too-wide, and finally rinses off his hands.

daniel lets him wash away the shampoo, and somehow in the process they end up kissing — seongwoo isn't really sure who leaned in first.

 

 

 

seongwoo is working on one of his literature assignments — an essay he was supposed to hand in a week or so ago — and trying to ignore the clock on the wall above his bookcase dutifully telling him it's going to be one in the morning soon. his back is stiff and left leg is asleep, but seongwoo soldiers on, switching from tab to tab on his browser to find that one particular article he needs to reference right _now_.

frustration spikes when after another click of mouse his laptop decides to freeze. seongwoo clicks around a few times desperately, pressing ctrl+alt+del on the keyboard and huffing when windows doesn't respond. he presses down his elbows on the desk and rests his forehead on open palms, digging his fingers into his hair and pressing the nails into the scalp until it hurts.

 

the doorbell ringing startles him so bad, one of his elbow slides off the edge of the desk painfully as he turns around in his chair.

"huh?"

another glance to the clock tells him it's no earlier than quarter to one am, and he worries about who might be behind the door, irrational anxiety making itself known.

when he finds it himself to get up and make his way across the room to stand in front of the entrance door, he pauses.

seongwoo doesn't have an intercom installed, let alone one with video, so he has to raise his voice when he asks, "hello? who's there?"

"it's me!" a familiar voice says and seongwoo instantly relaxes, turning the key in the door to open it.

"who's me?" he asks and grins when the door is opened and he's face to face with none other than daniel.

" _ya boy_ ," daniel says, in english with his usual thick accent, and slides inside seongwoo's apartment past him, snow falling from his coat right onto the carpet.

"what?" seongwoo asks, perplexed.

daniel laughs, taking off the fanny pack he wears across the chest and tossing it on the small drawer seongwoo has next to the shoe rack. "nothing," he shakes his head, leaning in to give confused seongwoo a kiss on lips — he misses a bit, pecking seongwoo in the corner of his mouth instead. he beams at seongwoo when he stands straight again, hard enough for his eyes to disappear and laugh lines in the corners form themselves on his skin below the temples. "hey."

"hey," seongwoo smiles too, less bright than daniel but no less sincere. stress and anxiety he's been dealing with all evening evaporate momentarily at the sight of daniel with his snow covered coat and damp bangs falling softly on his forehead. seongwoo can't help but wonder, though, "what are you doing here?"

daniel lifts up a plastic bag seongwoo hasn't noticed he was holding, and toes off his wet sneakers. "got some chicken."

he turns on his heels to make his way into seongwoo's tiny kitchen without waiting for seongwoo's reply, and seongwoo makes a sound, hurrying to close the door and follow daniel who has already started to get the contents of seongwoo's bag out.

 

frankly speaking, he didn't expect anything to happen when he replied to daniel's text from an hour ago or so if he's eaten or not, saying that no but he will once he's done working. he certainly didn't expect for daniel to come over, let alone buy him food — from their favorite joint, nonetheless.

"thank you," he says as he seats himself down to daniel, chuckling when daniel stops opening up the chicken packaging in order to slide on his chair closer to seongwoo, close enough for their shoulders to brush.

daniel laughs as he continues setting up the table before replying, "don't think i bought it for you, i just happened to be nearby."

it's a blatant lie — the chicken joint is way closer to daniel's apartment than it is to seongwoo's, but seongwoo doesn't call him out. instead he just grins, corners of his mouth pulling hard on his cheeks as he picks up a spicy wing with his greedy fingers.

"do you have any soda?.." daniel asks, springing to his feet to check seongwoo's fridge.

 

 

 

"ah, here he is!" jaehwan yells, making minhyun hiss at him for not using his indoor voice.

seongwoo turns his head as well, smiling at the sight of daniel rushing to their table, finally free of his duties as a helper at the small event their university student council has organized to celebrate the end of another year. he's got one of the lunchboxes provided to everyone attending in his hands, and he's clutching onto it as if it's some kind of treasure — seongwoo guesses daniel hasn't eaten all day, in his usual habit of forgetting to pack food when he knows he'll be too busy to grab a bite.

 

"hi guys!" daniel greets once he's at their table, heavily plopping down on his seat to seongwoo's left and turning to look him in the eyes. "hi seongwoo."

"hi niel," seongwoo pats his waist through the thick sweater daniel is wearing, regretful that there are people around keeping him from giving daniel even the smallest kiss.

"can you two be any less lovey-dovey?" minhyun quips good-heartedly and laughs, picking at his food as he props his chin on his palm and watches them. seongwoo clears his throat, embarrassed, and turns to face his food, shoving a fork full of rice into his mouth so he doesn't have to reply. daniel mirrors him, opening the lid and promptly separating the thin chopsticks that went with the lunchbox.

jaehwan speaks up as he chews, a bit of food falling down into the plate — at which minhyun makes a displeased face, — "they'll die if they stop being gross for one second."

they haven't even _done_ anything and seongwoo feels the need to argue, but daniel laughing so hard his shoulders start to shake distracts him. it's unfair, seongwoo wants to say, because it's not like he's being grossly in love intentionally. really, it's daniel's fault for making a fool out of him.

"you're just jealous," daniel accuses through his laughter, mixing the salad in the lunchbox as he looks jaehwan dead in the eye and proceeds to childishly show him his tongue.

"oh, no," jaehwan deadpans. "you cracked me. i'm so lonely, please, somebody, find me a person to date," he pleads, shoulders sagging for good measure as he pretends to be miserable.

 

seongwoo tunes out the bickering that starts almost immediately, and instead glances down at daniel's food, curious if he has the same thing as seongwoo and minhyun because the contents of jaehwan's lunchbox are different. his eyes widen in alarm when he notices there are shrimps in the salad daniel is mixing, and a quick look to daniel's face tells him that daniel hasn't noticed yet, too busy arguing with minhyun. seongwoo decides to take the matters into his own hands and pushes daniel's chopsticks away with his fork.

"hold on," he instructs, ignoring how his friends pause their bickering to look at him. he picks out the shrimp, disposing them into his own lunchbox, and when he's done, looks up to meet daniel's eyes that are trained on him. "there."

daniel smiles, gentle and eyes drooping softly.

"thank you," he says, bumping their shoulders together, and seongwoo goes back to his own food, persevering the way minhyun and jaehwan look at him in amusement.

 

 

 

it's in the middle of february when daniel goes through what he says is one of the most stressful weeks of his life, that then turns into two weeks — the end of semester exams are closer and closer with each passing day, the assignments are piling up, and the workload on both of his jobs increases suddenly at the same time, to the point where seongwoo barely sees daniel around despite them living twenty minutes away from each other and mostly hanging out at the same places. not that both of them have that much time to hang out anyway, even if seongwoo took most of his exams during holidays in january, he's still busy, both with his own job and university.

 

what upsets seongwoo the most is that he can't do anything about daniel being overworked and stressed out, because daniel refuses to quit at least one of his jobs, saying he needs the money, and with daniel being a stubborn fucking _asshole_ , it's impossible to convince him to take care of himself as he slaves away.

instead of arguing, seongwoo tries to help out as much as he can. with them having finally ( _finally_ , jihoon sighed dramatically when they happened to mention it) exchanged keys to each other's places, seongwoo can easily come over to check up on how daniel is doing. unfortunately, he only manages to catch him at home once, in the middle of the first hellish week, before daniel shoves the rest of his dinner inside his mouth and rushes out to be in time for when his evening shift at lotte world starts.

 

so, seongwoo does what he can do — cleans up daniel's apartment in his absence, makes sure none of their joined friends bother daniel when he studies, sends silly little messages of encouragement over kakaotalk, knowing just how well daniel takes to praise, and lives his own life because he's yet to defend his thesis paper before his graduation in early march.

 

it's hard, because they've never been apart for long and seongwoo itches to just roll around in bed with daniel (not necessarily in a sexual way — but, yes, that too), but daniel is _busy_ , busy juggling class and work while also trying to meet deadlines and not drop dead.

it's worrying, because seongwoo knows for sure daniel doesn't get nearly enough sleep to get him through the day. he never does, and even when his schedule isn't as crazy, he stays up till four in the morning most nights. seongwoo wishes daniel would sleep more, but daniel always brushes him off and changes the subject when seongwoo brings his unhealthy lifestyle up.

it comes to an end when the last week of february rolls around, along with daniel's last exam and the end of his third year of undergrad. daniel passes it with flying colors even though he was stressing himself out, because of course he does — daniel is one of those lucky ones whose hard work pays off almost all the time, — and seongwoo can't help but feel proud of him.

 

the first free of worries (for now) day daniel spends sleeping and seongwoo doesn't bother him, wishing for nothing but rest for him. but the day after that, daniel shows up on his doorstep, mere minutes after seongwoo arrives home after his last class.

daniel doesn't use his key — instead rings the doorbell, and once seongwoo lets him inside, sweeps seongwoo in a bone-crushing hug, laughing loudly right into his ear without a care in the world.

"hyung!" he exclaims, still not letting go even when seongwoo tries to close the door after him. seongwoo feels him toe off his shoes in the process, and the fact that he does it so quickly and with such ease is awfully amusing.

"what's with the hyung act?" seongwoo asks, taken aback because he hasn't heard the honorific from daniel in a long, long time.

daniel leans back, arms tightening around seongwoo's waist, and corrects himself, "seongwoo! ong seongwoo! i passed!"

the childlike excitement on daniel's face makes seongwoo laugh — not because it's particularly funny but rather because of how endearing it is, doubled by the fact that daniel has already told seongwoo about the news and has been congratulated and praised for his hard work in response. seongwoo pats daniel's hair lovingly.

"i'm proud of you," he says, meeting daniel's eyes to make sure he knows that seongwoo truly means it.

 

the smile he gets in return is dazzling, as if nothing makes daniel happier than seongwoo being proud of him, and the thought sends seongwoo's stomach flipping as much as it did the first time he was on the receiving end of that smile.

"seongwoo-ya, thank you for taking care of me so well," daniel says, tone sincere and a bit choked-up even though his smile doesn't waver even a tad. if anything, it becomes wider and toothier, corners of daniel's mouth cutting through his full and pink from the cold cheeks.

seongwoo feels himself tear up and quickly blinks the wetness on his eyes away before daniel can say anything, leaning in to plant a kiss on daniel's cheek, right on the tiny birthmark he has there.

"you're welcome, niellie," he says, letting go of daniel and watching him happily skip his way to the couch where he finally sheds his coat.

 

"aren't you coming?" he asks, tilting his head quizzically like a pup and unintentionally filling seongwoo's heart with affection.

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/nxxcity) and send something to my [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/buttholer)


End file.
